The IMS Interface › 21st Century Support

21st Century Support

21st Century support for the IMS Interface is provided through maintenance and requires IMS 5.1 or higher. IMS Release 6.1 is IBM's release of IMS that provides century support in the IMS Log File's date fields in Julian YYYYDDD form.

The interface has been modified to support the new IMS date format (IMS 6.1 and above), while input parameters and the output history file retain their existing date formats. Internally, the interface processes and sorts based on the full century date, so date selection and sort sequencing will be correct. The overall design of 21st century support in the Report Writer is to treat years with values of 00 through 59 as being in the 21st century; for example, 2000-2059. Years with values of 60 through 99 are treated as being in the 20th century; for example, 1960-1999. The following text discusses in detail each of the areas of date processing affected by 21st century support.

For purposes of sorting, comparisons and calculations involving dates, the two-digit year is logically expanded to include the century. This ensures proper sort sequencing, correct comparisons and results from calculations involving dates.

However, externally the two-digit year is maintained. This includes all external files with the exception of EXTDATA files, reports, and input parameters. This implementation eliminates the need to change parameters or file layouts. In addition, the Wizard Report Writer has been modified in the same fashion to properly process two-digit years in date fields.

The following text discusses in detail each of the areas of date processing affected by 21st century support.